Signal enhancement

ABSTRACT

Technologies and implementations for signal enhancement are generally disclosed.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a U.S national stage filing under 35 U.S.C.§371 of International Application No. PCT/US12/24175, filed on Feb. 7,2012.

BACKGROUND

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in thissection are not prior art to the claims in this application and are notadmitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.

Handheld devices such as, but not limited to, tablet computers, mobilephones, handheld gaming devices, etc. have increased data capacity. Inorder to facilitate sharing or accessing data on the handheld devices,methods of communication with handheld devices have become moreimportant. Some examples may include near field communication,Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and various other methods to facilitate wirelesscommunication between electronic devices.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure describes example methods, apparatus, and systemsrelated to signal enhancement between electronic devices. Such anapparatus may include a touch screen, a number of wireless signaldetectors located approximately around a perimeter of the touch screen,a machine readable non-transitory medium, and a processor. The processormay be communicatively coupled to the touch screen, the machine readablenon-transitory medium, and the number of wireless signal detectors. Themachine readable non-transitory medium may have stored thereininstructions that, if executed by the processor, may operatively enablea computing device to receive an indication of a device on a surface ofa touch screen. The computing device may determine a location of thedevice on the surface of the touch screen, and from the device, a signalmay be detected. The signal may be enhanced based, at least in part, onthe determined location and the detected signal.

The foregoing summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be inany way limiting. In addition to the illustrative aspects, embodiments,and features described above, further aspects, embodiments, and featureswill become apparent by reference to the drawings and the followingdetailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Subject matter is particularly pointed out and distinctly claimed in theconcluding portion of the specification. The foregoing and otherfeatures of the present disclosure will become more fully apparent fromthe following description and appended claims, taken in conjunction withthe accompanying drawings. Understanding that these drawings depict onlyseveral embodiments in accordance with the disclosure and are,therefore, not to be considered limiting of its scope, the disclosurewill be described with additional specificity and detail through use ofthe accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example apparatus that is arranged in accordancewith at least some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates a plan view of another example apparatus that isarranged in accordance with various embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of another example apparatus that isarranged in accordance with at least some embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example process for enhancing a signal inaccordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example computer program product that is arrangedin accordance with at least some examples of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example computing device, suchas might be embodied by a person skilled in the art, which is arrangedin accordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following description sets forth various examples along withspecific details to provide a thorough understanding of claimed subjectmatter. It will be understood by those skilled in the art, however, thatclaimed subject matter may be practiced without some or more of thespecific details disclosed herein. Further, in some circumstances,well-known methods, procedures, systems, components and/or circuits havenot been described in detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuringclaimed subject matter.

In the following detailed description, reference is made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part hereof. In the drawings,similar symbols typically identify similar components, unless contextdictates otherwise. The illustrative embodiments described in thedetailed description, drawings, and claims are not meant to be limiting.Other embodiments may be utilized, and other changes may be made,without departing from the spirit or scope of the subject matterpresented here. It will be readily understood that the aspects of thepresent disclosure, as generally described herein, and illustrated inthe Figures, can be arranged, substituted, combined, and designed in awide variety of different configurations, all of which are explicitlycontemplated and make part of this disclosure.

This disclosure is drawn, inter alia, to methods, apparatus, and systemsrelated signal enhancement.

As discussed above, examples of signal enhancement technology describedherein may include utilizing a touch screen and locating a device on thetouch screen. Signal from the device may be enhanced base, at least inpart, on the location of the device on the touch screen.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example apparatus 100 that is arranged inaccordance with at least some embodiments of the present disclosure. Inthe illustrated example, the apparatus 100 may include a touch screen102 having a surface 104. The touch screen 102 may also include a numberof wireless signal detectors 108 located approximately around theperimeter of the touch screen 102. Additionally, a device 110 is shownplaced on the surface 104 of the touch screen 102.

In the illustrated example of FIG. 1, a computing device communicativelycoupled with the touch screen 102, may receive an indication that thedevice 110 is on the surface 104. A location of the device 110 on thesurface 104 may then be determined. Additionally, a signal may bedetected from the device 110 by one or more wireless signal detectors108. The signal may then be enhanced, where the enhancement may bebased, at least in part, on the location of the device 110 on thesurface 104 of the touch screen 102 and the detected signal, inaccordance with various embodiments of the disclosure. Additionally insome embodiments, detecting the signal may facilitate determining adirection of the signal from the device 110.

In FIG. 1, the touch screen 102 may be a wide variety of touch screensemploying various technologies such as, but not limited to, resistivetype touch screens or capacitive type touch screens. The surface 104 maybe a wide variety of surfaces such as, but not limited to, transparentflexible surface, a rigid glass-type surface, and so forth, andaccordingly, the claimed subject matter is not limited in theserespects.

The device 110 may include a wide variety of devices capable of emittingsome form of wireless signal such as, but not limited to, mobile phones,smart type mobile phones, personal digital assistants, tablet computers,and so forth.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, the wireless signal detectors108 are shown located approximately around the perimeter of the touchscreen 102. The wireless signal detectors 108 may be a wide variety ofdetectors suitable for detecting wireless signals such as, but notlimited to, detectors utilizing antenna and radios to facilitatescanning capabilities. Accordingly, the location of the detectors 108may be any location on, in, and/or near the touch screen 102 and in awide variety of patterns. Additionally, even though the number ofdetectors shown may be eight, it is contemplated within the scope of theclaimed subject matter that the number of detectors may be any number.

As will be described in more detail, in FIG. 1, signals from the device110 may be enhanced in accordance with various embodiments of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates a plan view of another example apparatus 200 that isarranged in accordance with various embodiments of the presentdisclosure. As shown in FIG. 2, the apparatus 200 may include a touchscreen 202 having a generally rectangular shape. The touch screen 202may have a surface 204, and on the surface 204, there may be placed adevice 210. As illustrated, the device 210 may have a center point 212.Additionally, a number of wireless signal detectors 220-227 (numberedclockwise and approximately equally spaced) may be located approximatelyaround a perimeter of the touch screen 202. In FIG. 2, a representationof a wireless signal 230 being emitted by the device 210 may be shown.

In FIG. 2, the touch screen 202 may receive an indication that thedevice 210 is on the surface 204. The indication of the device 210 onthe surface 204 may include an indication of distortion on the surface204, and from the indication of distortion on the surface 204, anapproximate size of the device 210 may be determined. Accordingly, inone embodiment, the location of the device 210 may be determined bydetermining a center point 212 of the device 210.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the center point 212 of the device 210 may belocated approximately towards a left side of the touch screen 202 closerto the wireless signal detectors 224, 225, and 226. Accordingly, thewireless signal detectors 224, 225, and 226 may be capable of detectingthe signal 230 from the device 210. As will be described in detailfurther below, the signal 230 may be enhanced based, at least in part,on the location of the device 210 (e.g., the center point 212) and thedetected signal from the device 210 in accordance with variousembodiments. Additionally, because it may be difficult to determine theposition of the antenna included in the device 210 for facilitating theemission of the signal 230, the utilization of the number of wirelesssignal detectors 224, 225, and 226 along with the center point 212 mayfacilitate signal enhancement by reducing effects of position estimationerrors.

With continued reference to FIG. 2, the touch screen 202 may be shown ashaving a substantially rectangular shape, but it should be appreciatedthat the touch screen 202 may be a wide variety of touch screens havinga variety of polygonal shapes or may be of a random shape. As previouslydescribed with reference to the surface 104, the surface 204 may be of awide variety of surfaces. As alluded to previously, the surface 204 mayinclude one or more sensors capable of detecting an object on thesurface 204. The detection may include detecting a distortion on thesurface 204 of the touch screen 202. One or more such sensors mayinclude sensors such as, but not limited to, a piezoelectric type sensorcapable of detecting minute distortions (e.g., pressure) on a surface,an optical type sensors capable of detecting objects obscuring light(i.e., capable of determining an approximate size of an object by ashadow cast by the object on a surface), a sensor capable of detecting achange in a magnetic field of a surface, an optical image capturingsensor (e.g., image capturing sensor capable of object recognition),etc., and accordingly, the claimed subject matter is not limited inthese respects. As may be appreciated, such sensors may be utilized tofacilitate determination of the center point 212 of the device 210.

The device 210 may be a wide variety of devices capable of emitting someform of wireless signal as previously described, and accordingly, thesignal 230 may be a wide variety of wireless signals. The signal 230 maybe a wireless signal such as, but not limited to, radio frequencyidentification (RFID) type signal, near field communication type signal,Infrared Data Association (IrDA) type signal, Bluetooth type signal, ora wide variety of personal area network (PAN) capable signals, andaccordingly, is not limited in these respects.

FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram of another example apparatus 300 thatis arranged in accordance with at least some embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In the illustrated example, the apparatus 300 may include atouch screen 302, a number of wireless signal detectors 304, a transmitand receive (TX/RX) module 306, a processor 308, and a machine readablenon-transitory medium 312. The processor 308 may be communicativelycoupled to the touch screen 302, the number of wireless signal detectors304, the TX/RX module 306, and the machine readable non-transitorymedium 312 via a communication medium 310.

In FIG. 3, as will be described in more detail, the machine readablenon-transitory medium 312 may have instructions that, when executed byprocessor 308, operatively enable the apparatus 300 to receive anindication of a device (e.g., the device 110 in FIG. 1 or the device 210in FIG. 2) on a surface (e.g., the surface 104 in FIG. 1 or the surface204 in FIG. 2) of the touch screen 302. The apparatus 300 may thendetermine a location of the device on the surface of the touch screen302. Additionally, the apparatus 300 may detect a signal (e.g., thesignal 230 in FIG. 2) via the TX/RX module 306 and determine a directionof the signal from the device. As will be describe in more detail,based, at least in part, on the determined location of the device andthe detected signal from the device, the apparatus 300 may enhance thesignal.

In FIG. 3, the apparatus 300 may be configured to facilitate utilizationof a wide variety of signal management techniques such as, but notlimited to, multi-channel enhancement techniques, in accordance withvarious embodiments. In one embodiment, the wireless signal detectors304 may be configured for beamforming. For example, briefly referringback to FIG. 2, the wireless signal detectors 224, 225, and 226 may beutilized as an array of detectors for detection of the signal 230, andaccordingly, the apparatus 300 may transmit wireless signals via theTX/RX module 306 by managing a directionality of the wireless signaldetectors 224, 225, and 226 utilizing beamforming techniques. In oneembodiment, the apparatus 300 may be configured to utilize independentcomponent analysis techniques based, at least in part, on a location ofa device and a detected signal from the device as previously described.These signal management techniques are but a few examples, andaccordingly, the claimed subject matter is not limited in theserespects.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3, the apparatus 300 may beincluded in a wide variety of computing devices such as, but not limitedto, a mobile device, a client device, a server type device, ubiquitoustype computing environment (e.g., cloud type computing), and so forth,and accordingly, the claimed subject matter is not limited in theserespects. For the purposes of describing the disclosed subject matter,the apparatus 300 may be included in a device having a touch screen suchas, but not limited to, a table like device. It follows that thecommunication medium 310 may be a wide variety of communication mediumsto facilitate communicative coupling of various components/modules suchas, but not limited to, a bus type medium (i.e., physical) or WiFi typemedium (i.e., wireless).

The processor 308 may represent one or more processors, which mayinclude a wide variety of processors such as, but not limited to acomputer, a microprocessor, a microcontroller, a field programmable gatearray (FPGA), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), asequestered thread or a core of a multi-core/multi-threadedmicroprocessor or a combination thereof.

It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art, that in order tonot obscure the disclosed subject matter and to facilitate understandingof the disclosed subject matter, the apparatus 300 (shown in FIG. 3) andtheir respective components are illustrated as functional blocks. Thatis, it is contemplated that the apparatus 300 may be implemented in awide variety of manners within the scope of the claimed subject matterwithout detracting the disclosed subject matter, and accordingly, thedisclosed subject matter is not limited in these respects.

FIG. 4 illustrates another example of a process 400 for signalenhancement in accordance with at least some embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In the illustrated example, the process 400 may include oneor more of functional operations as indicated by example operations 402,404, 406, 408, and/or 410.

As illustrated, the process 400 may be implemented for signalenhancement. Processing may begin at an operation 402, “RECEIVEINDICATION OF DEVICE”, where an indication of a device on a surface of atouch screen may be received.

The processing may continue from the operation 402 to an operation 404,“DETERMINE LOCATION OF DEVICE”, where a location of the device on thesurface of the touch screen may be determined.

The processing may continue from the operation 404 to an operation 406,“DETECT SIGNAL FROM DEVICE”, where a signal from the device may bedetected.

The processing may continue from the operation 406 to an operation 410,“ENHANCE SIGNAL”, where based, at least in part, on the determinedlocation of the device and the detected signal from the device, thesignal may be enhanced.

As previously described, in some embodiments, a direction of the signalfrom the device may be determined.

It should be appreciated that the above described process 400 may beimplemented in a wide variety of manners such as, but not limited to,the various embodiments of the present disclosure and variationsthereof.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a computer program product 500 that isarranged in accordance with at least some examples of the presentdisclosure. The program product 500 may include a signal bearing medium502. The signal bearing medium 502 may include a machine readablenon-transitory medium having stored therein instructions 504 that, ifexecuted by one or more processors, may operatively enable a computingdevice to provide the functionality described above with respect to FIG.4. Thus, for example, the apparatus 300 (see, e.g., FIG. 3) mayundertake one or more of the actions shown in FIG. 4 in response to theexecution of the instructions 504 conveyed by the signal bearing medium502.

In some implementations, the signal bearing medium 502 may encompass anon-transitory computer-readable medium 506, such as, but not limitedto, a hard disk drive, a Compact Disc (CD), a Digital Versatile Disk(DVD), a digital tape, memory, etc. In some implementations, the signalbearing medium 502 may encompass a recordable medium 508, such as, butnot limited to, memory, read/write (R/W) CDs, R/W DVDs, etc. In someimplementations, the signal bearing medium 502 may encompass acommunications medium 510, such as, but not limited to, a digital and/oran analog communication medium (e.g., a fiber optic cable, a waveguide,a wired communications link, a wireless communication link, etc.).

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating an example computing device 600,such as might be embodied by a person skilled in the art, which isarranged in accordance with at least some embodiments of the presentdisclosure. In one example of a basic configuration 601, the computingdevice 600 may include one or more processors 610 and a system memory620. A memory bus 630 may be used for communicating between the one ormore processor 610 and the system memory 620.

Depending on the desired configuration, the one or more processor 610may be of any type including but not limited to a microprocessor (μP), amicrocontroller (μC), a digital signal processor (DSP), or anycombination thereof. The one or more processor 610 may include one ormore levels of caching, such as a level one cache 611 and a level twocache 612, a processor core 613, and registers 614. The processor core613 may include an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), a floating point unit(FPU), a digital signal processing core (DSP Core), or any combinationthereof. A memory controller 615 may also be used with the one or moreprocessor 610, or in some implementations the memory controller 615 maybe an internal part of the one or more processor 610.

Depending on the desired configuration, the system memory 620 may be ofany type including but not limited to volatile memory (such as RAM),non-volatile memory (such as ROM, flash memory, etc.) or any combinationthereof. The system memory 620 may include an operating system 621, oneor more applications 622, and program data 624. The one or moreapplications 622 may include a signal enhancement algorithm 623 that isarranged to perform the functions as described herein including thefunctional blocks and/or actions described with respect to the process400 of FIG. 4. The program data 624 may include signal enhancement data625 for use with the signal enhancement algorithm 623. In some exampleembodiments, the one or more applications 622 may be arranged to operatewith program data 624 on the operating system 621 such thatimplementations of signal enhancement may be provided as describedherein. For example, the apparatus 100 (see, e.g., FIG. 1) and/or theapparatus 300 (see, e.g., FIG. 3) may comprise all or a portion of thecomputing device 600 and may be capable of performing all or a portionof the one or more applications 622 such that implementations of signalenhancement may be provided as described herein. This described basicconfiguration 601 is illustrated in FIG. 6 by those components withindashed line.

The computing device 600 may have additional features or functionality,and additional interfaces to facilitate communications between the basicconfiguration 601 and any required devices and interfaces. For example,a bus/interface controller 640 may be used to facilitate communicationsbetween the basic configuration 601 and one or more data storage devices650 via a storage interface bus 641. The one or more data storagedevices 650 may be removable storage devices 651, non-removable storagedevices 652, or a combination thereof. Examples of removable storage andnon-removable storage devices include magnetic disk devices such asflexible disk drives and hard-disk drives (HDD), optical disk drivessuch as compact disk (CD) drives or digital versatile disk (DVD) drives,solid state drives (SSD), and tape drives to name a few. Examplecomputer storage media may include volatile and nonvolatile, removableand non-removable media implemented in any method or technology forstorage of information, such as computer readable instructions, datastructures, program modules, or other data.

The system memory 620, the removable storage devices 651 and thenon-removable storage devices 652 are all examples of computer storagemedia. The computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM,ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digitalversatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes,magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices,or any other medium which may be used to store the desired informationand which may be accessed by the computing device 600. Any such computerstorage media may be a part of the computing device 600.

The computing device 600 may also include an interface bus 642 forfacilitating communication from various interface devices (e.g., outputinterfaces, peripheral interfaces, and communication interfaces) withthe basic configuration 601 via the bus/interface controller 640.Example output interfaces 660 may include a graphics processing unit 661and an audio processing unit 662, which may be configured to communicateto various external devices such as a display or speakers via one ormore A/V ports 663. Example peripheral interfaces 670 may include aserial interface controller 671 or a parallel interface controller 672,which may be configured to communicate with external devices such asinput devices (e.g., keyboard, mouse, pen, voice input device, touchinput device, etc.) or other peripheral devices (e.g., printer, scanner,etc.) via one or more I/O ports 673. An example communication interface680 includes a network controller 681, which may be arranged tofacilitate communications with one or more other computing devices 690over a network communication via one or more communication ports 682. Acommunication connection is one example of a communication media. Thecommunication media may typically be embodied by computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in amodulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transportmechanism, and may include any information delivery media. A “modulateddata signal” may be a signal that has one or more of its characteristicsset or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal.By way of example, and not limitation, communication media may includewired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, andwireless media such as acoustic, radio frequency (RF), infrared (IR) andother wireless media. The term computer readable media as used hereinmay include both storage media and communication media.

The computing device 600 may be implemented as a portion of a small-formfactor portable (or mobile) electronic device such as a cell phone, apersonal data assistant (PDA), a personal media player device, awireless web-watch device, a personal headset device, an applicationspecific device, or a hybrid device that may include any of the abovefunctions. The computing device 600 may also be implemented as apersonal computer including both laptop computer and non-laptop computerconfigurations. In addition, the computing device 600 may be implementedas part of a wireless base station or other wireless system or device.

Some portions of the foregoing detailed description are presented interms of algorithms or symbolic representations of operations on databits or binary digital signals stored within a computing system memory,such as a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions orrepresentations are examples of techniques used by those of ordinaryskill in the data processing arts to convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally, isconsidered to be a self-consistent sequence of operations or similarprocessing leading to a desired result. In this context, operations orprocessing involve physical manipulation of physical quantities.Typically, although not necessarily, such quantities may take the formof electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored, transferred,combined, compared or otherwise manipulated. It has proven convenient attimes, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to such signalsas bits, data, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers,numerals or the like. It should be understood, however, that all ofthese and similar terms are to be associated with appropriate physicalquantities and are merely convenient labels. Unless specifically statedotherwise, as apparent from the following discussion, it is appreciatedthat throughout this specification discussions utilizing terms such as“processing,” “computing,” “calculating,” “determining” or the likerefer to actions or processes of a computing device, that manipulates ortransforms data represented as physical electronic or magneticquantities within memories, registers, or other information storagedevices, transmission devices, or display devices of the computingdevice.

The claimed subject matter is not limited in scope to the particularimplementations described herein. For example, some implementations maybe in hardware, such as employed to operate on a device or combinationof devices, for example, whereas other implementations may be insoftware and/or firmware. Likewise, although claimed subject matter isnot limited in scope in this respect, some implementations may includeone or more articles, such as a signal bearing medium, a storage mediumand/or storage media. This storage media, such as CD-ROMs, computerdisks, flash memory, or the like, for example, may have instructionsstored thereon, that, when executed by a computing device, such as acomputing system, computing platform, or other system, for example, mayresult in execution of a processor in accordance with the claimedsubject matter, such as one of the implementations previously described,for example. As one possibility, a computing device may include one ormore processing units or processors, one or more input/output devices,such as a display, a keyboard and/or a mouse, and one or more memories,such as static random access memory, dynamic random access memory, flashmemory, and/or a hard drive.

There is little distinction left between hardware and softwareimplementations of aspects of systems; the use of hardware or softwareis generally (but not always, in that in certain contexts the choicebetween hardware and software can become significant) a design choicerepresenting cost vs. efficiency tradeoffs. There are various vehiclesby which processes and/or systems and/or other technologies describedherein can be affected (e.g., hardware, software, and/or firmware), andthat the preferred vehicle will vary with the context in which theprocesses and/or systems and/or other technologies are deployed. Forexample, if an implementer determines that speed and accuracy areparamount, the implementer may opt for a mainly hardware and/or firmwarevehicle; if flexibility is paramount, the implementer may opt for amainly software implementation; or, yet again alternatively, theimplementer may opt for some combination of hardware, software, and/orfirmware.

The foregoing detailed description has set forth various embodiments ofthe devices and/or processes via the use of block diagrams, flowcharts,and/or examples. Insofar as such block diagrams, flowcharts, and/orexamples contain one or more functions and/or operations, it will beunderstood by those within the art that each function and/or operationwithin such block diagrams, flowcharts, or examples can be implemented,individually and/or collectively, by a wide range of hardware, software,firmware, or virtually any combination thereof. In one embodiment,several portions of the subject matter described herein may beimplemented via Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), FieldProgrammable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), digital signal processors (DSPs), orother integrated formats. However, those skilled in the art willrecognize that some aspects of the embodiments disclosed herein, inwhole or in part, can be equivalently implemented in integratedcircuits, as one or more computer programs running on one or morecomputers (e.g., as one or more programs running on one or more computersystems), as one or more programs running on one or more processors(e.g., as one or more programs running on one or more microprocessors),as firmware, or as virtually any combination thereof, and that designingthe circuitry and/or writing the code for the software and/or firmwarewould be well within the skill of one of skill in the art in light ofthis disclosure. In addition, those skilled in the art will appreciatethat the mechanisms of the subject matter described herein are capableof being distributed as a program product in a variety of forms, andthat an illustrative embodiment of the subject matter described hereinapplies regardless of the particular type of signal bearing medium usedto actually carry out the distribution. Examples of a signal bearingmedium include, but are not limited to, the following: a recordable typemedium such as a flexible disk, a hard disk drive (HDD), a Compact Disc(CD), a Digital Versatile Disk (DVD), a digital tape, a computer memory,etc.; and a transmission type medium such as a digital and/or an analogcommunication medium (e.g., a fiber optic cable, a waveguide, a wiredcommunications link, a wireless communication link, etc.).

Those skilled in the art will recognize that it is common within the artto describe devices and/or processes in the fashion set forth herein,and thereafter use engineering practices to integrate such describeddevices and/or processes into data processing systems. That is, at leasta portion of the devices and/or processes described herein can beintegrated into a data processing system via a reasonable amount ofexperimentation. Those having skill in the art will recognize that atypical data processing system generally includes one or more of asystem unit housing, a video display device, a memory such as volatileand non-volatile memory, processors such as microprocessors and digitalsignal processors, computational entities such as operating systems,drivers, graphical user interfaces, and applications programs, one ormore interaction devices, such as a touch pad or screen, and/or controlsystems including feedback loops and control motors (e.g., feedback forsensing position and/or velocity; control motors for moving and/oradjusting components and/or quantities). A typical data processingsystem may be implemented utilizing any suitable commercially availablecomponents, such as those typically found in datacomputing/communication and/or network computing/communication systems.

The herein described subject matter sometimes illustrates differentcomponents contained within, or connected with, different othercomponents. It is to be understood that such depicted architectures aremerely exemplary, and that in fact many other architectures can beimplemented which achieve the same functionality. In a conceptual sense,any arrangement of components to achieve the same functionality iseffectively “associated” such that the desired functionality isachieved. Hence, any two components herein combined to achieve aparticular functionality can be seen as “associated with” each othersuch that the desired functionality is achieved, irrespective ofarchitectures or intermedial components. Likewise, any two components soassociated can also be viewed as being “operably connected”, or“operably coupled”, to each other to achieve the desired functionality,and any two components capable of being so associated can also be viewedas being “operably couplable”, to each other to achieve the desiredfunctionality. Specific examples of operably couplable include but arenot limited to physically mateable and/or physically interactingcomponents and/or wirelessly interactable and/or wirelessly interactingcomponents and/or logically interacting and/or logically interactablecomponents.

With respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singularterms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from theplural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as isappropriate to the context and/or application. The varioussingular/plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein for sakeof clarity.

It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, termsused herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of theappended claims) are generally intended as “open” terms (e.g., the term“including” should be interpreted as “including but not limited to,” theterm “having” should be interpreted as “having at least,” the term“includes” should be interpreted as “includes but is not limited to,”etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that if aspecific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such anintent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence ofsuch recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid tounderstanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of theintroductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claimrecitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed toimply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinitearticles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing suchintroduced claim recitation to inventions containing only one suchrecitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases“one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or“an” (e.g., “a” and/or “an” should typically be interpreted to mean “atleast one” or “one or more”); the same holds true for the use ofdefinite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, evenif a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitlyrecited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitationshould typically be interpreted to mean at least the recited number(e.g., the bare recitation of “two recitations,” without othermodifiers, typically means at least two recitations, or two or morerecitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a conventionanalogous to “at least one of A, B, and C, etc.” is used, in generalsuch a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the artwould understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at least one ofA, B, and C” would include but not be limited to systems that have Aalone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and Ctogether, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where aconvention analogous to “at least one of A, B, or C, etc.” is used, ingeneral such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill inthe art would understand the convention (e.g., “a system having at leastone of A, B, or C” would include but not be limited to systems that haveA alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and Ctogether, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). It will be furtherunderstood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive wordand/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in thedescription, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplatethe possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, orboth terms. For example, the phrase “A or B” will be understood toinclude the possibilities of “A” or “B” or “A and B.”

Reference in the specification to “an implementation,” “oneimplementation,” “some implementations,” or “other implementations” maymean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic describedin connection with one or more implementations may be included in atleast some implementations, but not necessarily in all implementations.The various appearances of “an implementation,” “one implementation,” or“some implementations” in the preceding description are not necessarilyall referring to the same implementations.

While certain exemplary techniques have been described and shown hereinusing various methods and systems, it should be understood by thoseskilled in the art that various other modifications may be made, andequivalents may be substituted, without departing from claimed subjectmatter. Additionally, many modifications may be made to adapt aparticular situation to the teachings of claimed subject matter withoutdeparting from the central concept described herein. Therefore, it isintended that claimed subject matter not be limited to the particularexamples disclosed, but that such claimed subject matter also mayinclude all implementations falling within the scope of the appendedclaims, and equivalents thereof.

What is claimed:
 1. A method to enhance a signal with a device on atouch screen comprising: receiving via the touch screen an indication ofthe device on a surface of the touch screen; determining a location ofthe device on the surface of the touch screen based at least in part onthe indication; detecting a signal and a direction of the signal fromthe device using beamforming with two or more sensors disposed proximateto the touch screen; and enhancing the beamforming detected signalbased, at least in part, on the determined location of the device andthe detected signal from the device.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinreceiving the indication of the device comprises receiving an indicationof distortion on the surface of the touch screen.
 3. The method of claim2 further comprising: determining an approximate size of the devicebased, at least in part, on the received indication of distortion on thesurface of the touch screen.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereindetermining the location of the device comprises determining a centerpoint of the device on the surface of the touch screen.
 5. The method ofclaim 1, wherein detecting the signal from the device comprisesdetecting a signal-to-noise ratio signal.
 6. The method of claim 1,wherein enhancing the signal comprises enhancing the signal utilizingindependent component analysis.
 7. The method of claim 1, whereinenhancing the signal comprises enhancing the signal based, at least inpart, on a generalized cross correlation with phase transformation.
 8. Amachine readable non-transitory medium having stored thereininstructions that, when executed by one or more processors, operativelyenable a computing device to: receive via the touch screen an indicationof a device on a surface of a touch screen; determine a location of thedevice on the surface of the touch screen based at least in part on theindication; detect a signal and a direction of the signal from thedevice using beamforming with two or more sensors disposed proximate tothe touch screen; and enhance the beamforming detected signal based, atleast in part, on the determined location of the device and the detectedsignal from the device.
 9. The machine-readable non-transitory medium ofclaim 8, wherein the stored instructions that, when executed by one ormore processors, further operatively enable the computing device toreceive an indication of distortion on the surface of the touch screen.10. The machine-readable non-transitory medium of claim 9, wherein thestored instructions that, when executed by one or more processors,further operatively enable the computing device to determine a proximatesize of the device, based at least in part, on the received indicationof distortion on the surface of the touch screen.
 11. Themachine-readable non-transitory medium of claim 8, wherein the storedinstructions that, when executed by one or more processors, furtheroperatively enable the computing device to determine a center point ofthe location of the device on the surface of the touch screen.
 12. Themachine-readable non-transitory medium of claim 8, wherein the storedinstructions that, when executed by one or more processors, furtheroperatively enable the computing device to detect a signal-to-noiseratio signal.
 13. The machine-readable non-transitory medium of claim 8,wherein the stored instructions that, when executed by one or moreprocessors, further operatively enable the computing device to enhancethe signal utilizing independent component analysis.
 14. Themachine-readable non-transitory medium of claim 8, wherein the storedinstructions that, when executed by one or more processors, furtheroperatively enable the computing device to enhance the signal based, atleast in part, on generalized cross correlation with phasetransformation.
 15. A system comprising: a touch screen having asurface; a plurality of wireless signal detectors located approximatelyaround a perimeter of the touch screen; and a processor communicativelycoupled to the touch screen and the plurality of wireless signaldetectors, the processor being configured to receive via the touchscreen an indication of a device on the surface of the touch screen,detect a signal from the device using beamforming, via the wirelesssignal detectors, determine the direction of the signal from the devicebased at least in part on the indication, via the wireless signaldetectors, to determine a location of the device on the touch screen,and enhance the beamforming detected signal based, at least in part, onthe determined location of the device and the detected signal from thedevice.
 16. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to receive an indication of distortion on the surface of thetouch screen.
 17. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor isfurther configured to determine an approximate size of the device based,at least in part, on the received indication of distortion on thesurface of the touch screen.
 18. The system of claim 15, wherein theprocessor is further configured to determine a center point of thedevice on the surface of the touch screen.
 19. The system of claim 15,wherein the processor is further configured to detect a signal-to-noiseratio signal.
 20. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor isfurther configured to enhance the signal utilizing independent componentanalysis.
 21. The system of claim 15, wherein the processor is furtherconfigured to enhance the signal based, at least in part, on ageneralized cross correlation with phase transformation.